Genealogy Corner… Documentation Hierarchy

Issue 23.11

Since we can use a family group record as a worksheet, we need to learn to judge the accuracy of the information found there.  To help judge easy versus difficult-to-document events on a family group record, use the following four factors: Completeness of names, dates, places and sources for each event; Availability of pertinent documents; More recent versus earlier events; Quality of available documents.

In the completeness of the names, dates, places and sources for each event, look at each one, are they exact names, dates and places given with an exact source for each event?  Do you just have names, dates and places given without an identified source?  Where did the information come from and how accurate is it?  Do you see partial or approximate names, dates or places given for an event?  Several likely events may even be unmentioned and you must guess they even happened.  Looking for further details to fill in the blanks on the family group sheet can lead you to more information, more clues and likely a lot more family information.

The availability of pertinent documents will come from home sources, older relatives’ records, easy-to-use databases, and Internet sites.  Census records, a nearby repository with records for the correct date and place of the event, distant repositories with records for the correct date and place of the event.  You may have to adjust among various records, go record type hunting, go jurisdiction hunting, or go repositories hunting to find pertinent records for the event.  Then there is the possibility that few pertinent records are likely to exist.   More recent events are going to be much easier to source and prove versus earlier events with very little available records in existence.

The quality of available documents is deciphered by you as you see the original with your own eyes wherever possible.  Those could include vital records, town records, civil registration, church records, bible, census, land and property, Social Security Death Index, tombstones, cemetery records, funeral home records, obituaries, newspapers, military records, internet images of original documents, internet transcript based on an original or biographies, genealogies, histories, and periodicals.

For additional information, Shanna Jones can be reached at (435)628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com